English. TracFeed OLSP

Transcription

1 English Emergency Tunnel Earthing System TracFeed OLSP

2 TracFeed OLSP Living in times of increasing mobility, public transport more than ever competes with private vehicle traffic. Modern trains and fast rail connections are increasingly attracting passengers, making an important contribution to a future with less pollution and mobility obstacles. High-speed rail links have been built in various countries, starting to weave a grid of comfortable high-speed connections throughout Europe. Interoperability and safety are major goals within the European Union to meet the future needs of an integrated economy. Individual technical solutions and local regulations are holding up this integration and are successively being replaced by common standards. Railway links usually involve viaducts and tunnels to a significant extent to cross mountainous regions. Hence, tunnel safety is a major issue which additionally came under scrutiny after the recent series of disastrous fire accidents in road tunnels. Top priority must therefore be assigned to modern and effective tunnel safety concepts. Deutsche Bahn AG uses modern safety systems like TracFeed OLSP in its tunnels. The Task In the event of a tunnel accident, passengers and rescue services are exposed not only to hazards from debris, fire and smoke but also from live overhead lines. Especially in case of a tunnel fire a fast evacuation by means of self-rescue efforts or external intervention is crucial, because the majority of the damage can be avoided within the first 15 minutes of the incident occurring. The railway service operator must ensure that all parts of the overhead traction voltage system are disconnected from the mains and earthed before rescue services can enter the tunnel. While disconnecting the affected section is typically done by a remote Energy Control Centre, earthing has to be performed manually on-site. Local rescue service personnel commonly are not authorised to perform manual earthing of the overhead line or do not have sufficient practice in this procedure, causing delays in rescue efforts. This especially applies to exceptional situations (train accident) with the complication of an unknown overhead line status. Missing manual earthing gear or the necessity to summon specially trained railway emergency managers may also take precious time. It is therefore the task to ensure that an automatic emergency earthing system is provided that } checks the voltage-free status of the overhead line, } automatically performs an earthing sequence, } verifies the successful earthing at both tunnel portals, } indicates the safe status to the rescue services. Normally, the earthing sequence is initiated by remote command from the railway operator s Energy Control Centre immediately after the overhead line has been disconnected from the mains. However, it must also be possible to carry out emergency earthing using OLSP on site. For this purpose, a control and display unit must be provided at all tunnel accesses where this can be done simply in a way that is comprehensible to laymen. 2

3 As a safety-oriented system, the Emergency Tunnel Earthing System (ETES) shall be equipped with self-supervision functions, redundancies in communication lines, fail-safe-strategies and an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to ensure a high degree of operational availability and to by all means prevent false indications that would lead to dangerous situations for rescue services. The technical specification for interoperability that is binding within the EU with regard to "Safety in railway tunnels" (TSI SRT) in conventional trans-european railway systems and in the trans-european high-speed railway system (2008/163/EC) requires self-rescue materials for evacuation and rescue in the event of an incident in the infrastructure area and a way of earthing the overhead line or power rail in the energy area for tunnels over 1 km long. The "Fire and catastrophe requirements for the construction and operation of railway tunnels" directive requires the installation of a system for automatic earthing and an overhead line status display for railway tunnels over 500 m long. The Solution TracFeed OLSP has been developed to meet the func-tional and safety requirements of all relevant directives and standards. It fulfills the stringent demands for a safe, reliable and easy-to-operate solution perfectly. TracFeed OLSP is certified by the German Federal Railway Authority (EBA) for installation in railway tunnels. Not just tunnels on high-speed routes such as Nuremberg-Ingolstadt but also other new tunnels such as the City Tunnel Leipzig and the route to Berlin-Brandenburg International airport are equipped with TracFeed OLSP systems. Tunnels in the existing network will also be equipped with OLSP systems. 3

4 The Product TracFeed OLSP as an integrated, functional product consists of two parts: the automation and telecontrol system and the overhead line components. Further, a number of services are necessary to erect an ETES and to put it into operation. This includes preparation of the system design including approvable documentation plus proof of conformity with the regulations pertaining to electromagnetic influence, project-specific engineering, supply, installation, commissioning and support of the approval process, through to maintenance of the system. All 14 phases of the lifecycle described in EN are covered. Balfour Beatty Rail is able to offer all components and the whole range of services necessary to build up an ETES. The customer significantly benefits from this "one interface"-philosophy not only through a lean project organisation but also by avoiding interfaces to third-party components and by a higher standardisation of applied products (like disconnectors or electrical drives) along the route. Field picture from an interference calculation TracFeed OLSP can be used for all of the known types of network. It can therefore be operated universally in 16.7 Hz, 50 Hz and direct current networks. Special railway operator requirements such as safety limit signalling can be integrated by Balfour Beatty Rail. 4

5 The System Overview TracFeed OLSP consists of Primary equipment - Earthing isolator switches, - Remote switch drives, - Voltage transformer and "Safety limit for rescue team" warning signs. Secondary equipment, - with one OLSP unit and local control equipment per portal and - one OLSP unit with control panel for each rescue access. System overview TracFeed OLSP All OLSP units communicate via redundant communication links. The units at the tunnel portals monitor and control the assigned primary equipment and distribute the information to all other units. Due to the system's distributed intelligence each unit can determine the overall system status autonomously. Earthing normally takes place on the basis of a remote command from the operator s higher- order control centre. For on-site operation each OLSP unit has an OLSP control and indication panel. All OLSP units are equipped with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for autonomous operation for up to 3 hours. 5

6 The Operation Freely accessible TracFeed OLSP control and indication panels are in-stalled at all tunnel access routes, i.e. at the portals and at all rescue accesses. Each panel features three indicator lamps (green, yellow and red) and a control button. The indicator lamps show the status of the overhead line and the control button allows emergency earthing to be triggered on-site. In case of an emergency, the operator's Energy Control Centre disconnects the overhead line and subsequently starts the earthing sequence of TracFeed OLSP by remote control. If this procedure has been finished successfully, all panels show a green light to indicate that accessing the tunnel is safe. Further, the earthed area is now visually limited by collapsible signs becoming visible at the poles the earthing disconnectors are mounted on. As a result, a safe and clearly indicated overhead line condition has been reached within a very short period of time, fulfilling the requirement that this status already exists when rescue services arrive at the scene. The relevant TSI SRT tunnel safety requirement has therefore been fulfilled. If the overhead line has been disconnected but not yet earthed (e.g. due to an interrupted communication between the ETES unit and the Energy Control Centre), the panels show red light; the earthing sequence can TracFeed OLSP Short instructions now be initiated locally by pressing the control button at any of the control and indication panels. Successful termination again is indicated by a green light at all panels. Whenever the overhead line is energised, pressing the control button has no effect at all. Misuse of the ETES by trespassers during normal train operation is therefore not possible. In the unlikely event of an interrupted communication between the TracFeed OLSP units the blinking yellow lamp indicates the locally earthed status. To ensure that the overall situation is safe, all slave units with disconnector control usually those at the tunnel portals must show this yellow blinking indication which needs to be verifiedby personnel e.g. by means of radio communication. 6 TracFeed OLSP Control and Indication Panel

7 The Conclusion TracFeed OLSP improves tunnel safety significantly by providing reliable and easy-to-operate emergency earthing of the overhead line. Rescue services immediately get a clear indication of the overhead line status and, if necessary, are able to perform an on-site emergency earthing by just pushing a button. TracFeed OLSP has been developed under the strict rules applicable to safety-relevant devices and is certified by the German Federal Railway Authority (EBA). This Emergency Tunnel Earthing System concept has been installed about 50 times comprising more than 180 units. The most recent references for TracFeed OLSP include the high-speed rail link Nuremberg Ingolstadt, the rail connection to Germany's new capital airport Berlin Brandenburg, the Katzenbergtunnel on the Rhine Valley line Karlsruhe Basel and the City-Tunnel in Leipzig. The TracFeed OLSP has also been used under the respective country-specific designation and design: in Austria as OLSIG within the projects Wienerwald Tunnel, Arlberg Tunnel and Lainzer Tunnel as well as in Switzerland as AEE within the projects Zurich Cross- City Link and Gotthard Base Tunnel (under construction). With TracFeed OLSP Balfour Beatty Rail is able to offer an integrated Emergency Tunnel Earthing System including all components and services from one source. 7

8 2 Balfour Beatty Rail GmbH Garmischer Str Munich Germany Tel Fax All rights reserved for Balfour Beatty Rail GmbH. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of Balfour Beatty Rail GmbH. The infor ma tion in this document contains general descriptions of the technical possibilities, which may not be available in every case. The required performance characteristics should therefore be specified individually when a contract is concluded. TracFeed is a registered trademark of Balfour Beatty plc. Balfour Bea y is a registered trademark of Balfour Beatty plc. 08/14 Printed in Germany BBRDE/049-e